Maria Sharapova has ended her season early as she aims to be fully fit for the 2019 season and once again compete for grand slam titles.
The five time grand slam champion has withdrawn from Beijing and Tianjin as she aims to be fully fresh for the 2019 season. According to her team she will next play in Shenzhen in January, where she reached the semi-finals this year before losing to Katerina Siniakova.
This means that the Russian is unlikely to be seeded for the Australian Open as she is the defending champion at the Tianjin Open with also final points from Shenzhen coming off before the first slam of the year in late January. The 31 year old will also miss the Kremlin Cup in Moscow, a tournament that she would have loved to play in front of her fellow Russians.
A Positive Yet Frustrating Season
Despite a poor start to the season, Sharapova had a very good season with a semi-final performance in Rome, where she defeated Jelena Ostapenko in a very tough battle before losing to Simona Halep. The Russian then backed up that performance with a quarter-final showing at Roland Garros, where she was thrashed by Garbine Muguruza in the last eight.
However only five wins in three tournaments since the French Open has shown that the Russian has a long way to go if she wants to challenge for titles on a consistent basis. Also injuries have not helped Sharapova as she needs to gain her physicality during the off-season if she wants to go deep into grand slams again.
Here is Sharapova’s 2018 summary, with her 2019 season beginning in Shenzhen in January:
Shenzhen – Semi-Finals
Australian Open – Third Round
Doha – First Round
Indian Wells – First Round
Stuttgart – First Round
Madrid – Quarter-Finals
Rome – Semi-Finals
Roland Garros – Quarter-Finals
Wimbledon – First Round
Montreal – Third Round
US Open – Fourth Round
